Final Revenge
by Darqx
Summary: Someone may be dead and gone, but that person has a few last 'surprises' for Zim...


Well, well, well. Lookie what we have here! Another interval fic! Gee, I really am belting these out aren't I? 

A.E.D: Yes. Yes you are. 

Anyway, I don't really have that much to say so how about a little synopsis of this story? Lights please. 

_Title:_ Final Revenge  
_Author:_ Darqx  
_Summary:_ Someone may be dead and gone, but that person has a few last 'surprises' for Zim…  
_Rating:_ PG-13  
_Warnings:_ Contains medium-ish (really more suggested) Zim torture. And a dead Gir.  
_Author's notes:_ This a one-shot story idea that came from god knows where. I guess that after writing a Dib insanity fic (The Voice inside my Head) I just felt the need to do something to Zim. Anyhow, it starts off a bit lightheartedly but gets darker near the end. And trust me; the end is definitely not what it seems!  
_Disclaimer:_ I don't own Invader Zim and co and am definitely not making any money whatsoever. If I did, I would be out somewhere in America slave driving Jhonen Vasquez to turn out the rest of season two. And then a season three…and then a four…and then - 

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**~*Final Revenge*~**

The front door of the strange, neon green house banged open as a very irate 'Invader' Zim stormed inside, muttering dark obscenities to himself. The Irken had just been in a violent fight with Dib, clearly distinguished from his torn clothes, askew wig, slightly smoking body and overall bad temper. 

"STUPID stuuupid Dib ugly moronic beast! So filthy! FILTHY! Little parasite worm…thing! Cowardly stinkbeast! ARGH! Should've fried him on the spot with lazers!! Worm pig weasel PIG using stuuuupid slarking water gun! RRRAAAARGH! I HATE HIM!!" 

Zim continued to mutter as he slammed the door shut with such force that it almost broke in two. It was a good thing that Gir was not at home; otherwise he might have ordered the dysfunctional SIR Unit to self destruct, just out of spite. 

_'Stupid robot probably would have ENJOYED that'_, Zim thought as he glared poisonously at the spot on the couch Gir usually occupied, _'I bet he's out doing that 'raving' thing he always does. Stupid, HORRIBLE thing!'_

He stalked into the dark kitchen and snarled at nothing in particular, before hopping into the trashcan disguised elevator. There was a small humming sound as the elevator started descending into the deeper bowels of his base… 

And then it stopped. 

"Eh?" It took Zim a moment to realize that he wasn't moving anymore. The Irken stared out the transparent walls silently, hands clasped behind his back, before – 

"AAARRGGHH!!" 

Zim screamed and lashed out at the glass wall with his fists, pounding on them in sheer frustration. Then he stepped back and gave it a few good kicks, just for good measure. He was tired, injured, had had a bad day and just wanted to relax, so he _did not need this right now!!_

"Work you stupid thing! WORK FOR ZIM!!" He demanded shrilly, banging his head against the curved glass in an almost rhythmic pattern. 

**_WHHHIRR! KA-CHINK! HMMMMMM!_**

Zim was violently thrown backwards as the elevator suddenly started back up and plummeted at an incredible pace! He screamed as base levels blurred together in a myriad of colours as he flashed past them, picking up speed with each bypassed floor. 

_'By the Tallest I am going to DIE!! This can't be happening!'_

There was a rough grinding noise, a sudden jerk, and Zim found himself crunched up against the ceiling from the unexpected stop before plunging back down and hitting the floor with a sickening _crack_! 

"Urghh…my…squeedily…sp…spooch…" The alien coughed weakly, as a bubble of thick purple blood escaped from his mouth and began pooling beside his head. He was vaguely aware of the elevator doors sliding open and crawled out quickly. 

Something was not right. 

He rested his forehead against the cold smoothness of the tiles, ignoring the protest his back made from being in such an awkward position. The inside of his mouth tasted awfully of copper and the unhealed burns, induced by that idiot Dib and his water gun, stung painfully. 

Something was definitely not right. 

And it scared him. 

Zim snorted. Scared? What was there to be scared of? It was most likely a technical glitch in the HouseBrain, or something. He was getting worked up for no reason. There was a logical explanation for everything… 

_'Yeah, that's it. A glitch. That's what it was. Heheh, silly me. I was worried for nothing, nothing at all…'_ Zim reassured himself as he picked himself up off the floor, clutching his stomach as nausea settled in. The Irken straightened his back so that he looked as proud as always, his trademark ego and brashness returning in full force. 

This was, HIS base, after all. What could go wrong in HIS base? 

_'Wait a minute.'_

Zim frowned as he finally took a good look at the base level he had stopped on. Dark red, purple and silver wires criss-crossed each other, making a tangled network in every available space. A huge computer console complete with gigantic screen occupied most of the room, though various other smaller screens randomly littered the area. 

The Communications room? What on Irk? 

He had wanted the Medical Bay, not the Communications room. Why had the elevator dropped him off here? A feeling of ill irritation swept over the green-skinned Irken. Was _nothing_ going right today? He should just get back in the elevator… 

Zim glanced at the elevator, which still had its door opened innocently, and shuddered. 

Or maybe not. 

_'Maybe…maybe…I'll just stay here until I've healed. Yeah. It's not like I'm… scared…or anything, it's just…I have more ingenious plans for world domination to formulate!'_

With that, Zim stumbled over to the swivel chair in front of the large computer console and slid into it. He knocked his wig off his head, releasing long, sable antennae, before pulling his contact lenses off and rubbing his real eyes irritatedly. Without realizing it, he found his mind wandering back to the elevator incident. 

It had been a few years since he had landed on Earth, and since until two years ago the only problems he had had with his base had been the glitch in the HouseBrain and the computer's attitude. But recently…recently there had started being more errors. Just little things at first, such as machinery mysteriously breaking down. Nothing he, ZIM, couldn't fix of course. But after that the more serious accidents had started happening. The computer suddenly stopped talking all together. A pipe had dislodged from the ceiling and almost brained him. Another time he had almost been electrocuted when he had been connecting two wires. Closer inspection had revealed that the inside of the wires had been partially chewed through, and he had yelled at Gir for hours on end to quit eating parts of the base. The elevator incident, probably the most threatening, was just another one to add to the long list. 

"But why?" Zim mused out loud, a disturbed look crossing his face, "Why have these accidents suddenly started happening? _How_ did they happen? Is it just a really large technical hitch? Can't be…this is the base of ZIM! Nothing _should_ go wrong with my expertise in fixing things…It _must_ be something else. But what?" 

He lapsed into silence, idly tapping gloved fingers against the armrest of his chair as his brow furrowed, deep in thought. 

That was when he noticed. 

It was silent. 

Normally Zim wouldn't have been bothered much by silence – in fact, sometimes he reveled in it – but this was different. This silence was just so… silent… that the air was thick with something un-nameable. The room, where it had been so familiar before, now seemed totally different – cold and unfeeling. Zim swiveled his head around wildly, his antennae flat against his head in fear as he looked around. The dark corners of the room suddenly seemed ominous, and the red lights coming from one type of machine blinked evilly. 

Like eyes. 

"Eheh…heh…" Zim tried to ignore the cold shivers that had started running up his spine, "Eyes. What a silly thought. They are just little light flashy things, not eyes. This is MY base. I am perfectly safe here, yes, perfectly safe…ahahaha hah hahah ha…" 

Even so, the Irken found himself wishing that Gir was around. The robot may be annoying, but he would have felt a lot better having company. No matter how stupid. 

**_CLANK!_**

"EYAAAH!" Zim screamed, whipping around in the chair to confront the source of the noise whilst at the same time his mind yelled, _'What was that?!'_

Crimson eyes trained themselves on something lying on the floor a few feet away…  
Something that looked very familiar… 

"…Gir?" Zim whispered in disbelief. Against all judgment he slipped out of the chair and crept over towards the prone body. 

Something was not right. 

He stifled a cry of shock as he got nearer, and realized that it _was_ Gir. 

Or at least, _had_ been. 

The robot's eyes were dull and blank, like dark voids against its metal skin. Below its head, where the 'chest' should have been there was – 

Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Gir's chest cavity had been ripped, no, _gnawed_ open. Gnawed open until a large hole had been made at the front. Wires, ripped and slightly melted at the ends from having sparked beforehand, spilled forth from the opening like intestines. Who knows how long he had been up…in the…ceiling… 

Zim bit a knuckle as he stared down at the mutilated SIR, which had a crooked grin stretched across its face. 

_'What could have done this? Who could have done this? Gir…'_

"Don't worry Gir. I'll fix you and you'll be back to your disgusting taco eating habits in no time…" Zim murmured, more of a way to keep his fear at bay than a conviction. 

Dropping on one knee, Zim made a move to pick up Gir's body before hesitating. That grin, that crooked grin, still disturbed him. It reminded him of someone – he couldn't quite remember – but it definitely did not belong on Gir's face. His eyes swept back along the length of the body, and, as he watched, a bug crawled out of the chest cavity. 

Wait. 

A bug? 

Metal did not attract bugs. At least not on this planet it didn't. 

Heart hammering, Zim started to slowly back away, his eyes on the bug. Somehow, something made the robot's head fall to the side. With another resounding **_CLANK_**, Zim found himself once again looking at a maniacal grin. 

_'Oh slark oh slark oh slark oh slark…'_

A shower of purple sparks and a loud noise behind him caused him to shriek. He had backed right into the computer console. 

"Heheheeh." 

The voice was quiet, but in the silence it seemed magnified ten times louder. It was everywhere, reverberating around the cold room. Zim spun around. 

And almost fell backwards in shock. 

"TAK!?" 

"The one and only," the purple-eyed female sneered back from her place on the computer screen. She looked exactly the same, from the modified Irken uniform she wore right up to the glinting mind probe thing attached to her head, "Hello ZIM. It's been a long time." 

"But…you…_how?!_" 

"To cut a long story short, after YOU left me drifting off in space TO DIE I figured out a way to save myself. However, my brilliant plan only allowed me to preserve my mind and conscious memory, leaving my body to rot." 

"What?" 

"I see you're still as pathetically dense as always. Fine, allow me to explain. Do you remember these?" 

Tak's image disappeared from the screen only to be replaced by a picture of a very small mechanical bug. The kind that had crawled out of Gir… 

Her voice suddenly emitted from the speakers, "I infected your base with these five years ago, when I first came down to take what was rightfully mine." 

Ah yes, he remembered that incident well. But he had gotten rid of all of them, hadn't he? 

"You thought you had gotten rid of all of them, but in reality a handful remained and continued to eat away at your base -" 

_'Eat away?'_ That hole in Gir's body… 

"- destroying it slowly. When I was floating out in space," Tak came back on screen and glared evilly at Zim, "I did the only thing I could do in order to survive. I figuratively 'left my body' and downloaded 'myself' into one of the bugs via this-" 

With a gloved finger she pointed to the thing attached to the side of her head. 

"- and gradually started to take control of this scrap heap. You were so idiotic you didn't even realize!" 

Zim's jaw hung open. Of course! Of course it all fell into place now! The machinery breaking down, that pipe that almost killed him, the chewed through wires. 

…Gir. 

Now he knew why that expression on the robot's face had been so familiar. That crooked grin had been Tak's! 

"It was you! You all along! You tried to kill me! YOU KILLED MY SIR UNIT!!" Zim yelled, anger starting to overtake him. 

"Bravo, you _finally_ figured it out," The smooth British sounding voice said sarcastically, "I do hope you've enjoyed my little…_'surprises'._" 

Zim shivered as his gaze flicked towards Gir's disfigured body. The brief anger had petered out once he had realized the full extent of what Tak could do and fear had once again set in. Suddenly, an idea wormed its way into Zim's ever scheming mind. 

_'The elevator.'_

He sneaked a glance at the elevator, which still had its door open. 

_'Tak is only inside the base. If I can get out there is nothing she can do about. Than I can figure out a way to get rid of her once and for all. She will rue the day she ever messed with ZIM'S PROPERTY! If I run fast enough I can get the elevator to take me to the house level…it's worth a shot!'_

Without another seconds thought Zim jumped backwards away from the screen and turned so that he faced the elevator, before sprinting towards it. Lights, colours and shadows blurred together as he streaked past, legs pumping. Slark, he had never run so fast in his life! 

As he neared the open door he looked over his shoulder and shot a look at Tak's image, and was surprised to see that she wasn't shocked or even angry at his sudden departure. In fact, she was grinning. 

Very evilly. 

**_SNAP!_**

He skidded to a halt just in time as the elevator door suddenly snapped shut without warning! 

"AUGH! WHAT IS THIS!?" 

The voice behind him laughed cruelly, "Weren't you listening Zim? Just like you, you never did listen to anyone but yourself. Well, I'll say it again. I. Control. Your. Base!" 

"AGGGHHH!" 

Zim leapt out of the way as a house base claw reached out to grab him. Deploying his spider-legs, the red Irken found himself dodging every single grabbing implement in the room. He jumped up and scuttled amongst thick wires set near the ceiling, hoping to maybe lose the claws amongst the tangle. 

"SLARK!" The cry ended in a muffled groan as he fell, landing heavily on a piece of equipment and bouncing off. His spider-legs, now torn off at the second joint, retracted uselessly into his Pak as thin cables reached out and enveloped his limbs. 

A second later and Zim was bound helplessly to the chair he had rested in beforehand. 

"Zim, Zim, Zim. Did you _really_ think you could outsmart me? Did you _really_ think you could get away so easily?" 

"RELEASE ME NOW!" 

The image stared at Zim, eyes slitted from amusement. 

"Release you?! What makes you think I _would_ do _that_? Do you know how long I have waited for a second chance at revenge? Five years Zim! FIVE SLARKING YEARS! For five years I bade my time until I could finally pay you back for what you did to me! And you think I would let you go just because you demanded it?" 

A house base claw descended down from the ceiling, clutching something shiny. Zim's face paled considerably as he realized what it was. With another sharp, almost hysteric cry, the Irken squirmed and strained against his bonds. 

A scalpel! 

"I'm going to make you scream Zim," Tak's voice darkened as it purred sadistically, "I'm going to make you scream and cry and beg and pray and then I'm going to kill you. Just like you killed me." 

The claw reached down and slid the blunt end of the scalpel down one of his long antennae. With a small whimper Zim jerked his head away. Tak chuckled. 

"Not so arrogant now are you? I know all of your fears. Every single one. Every single log you've put into the computer's main database I've skimmed…" 

"No…" Zim whispered, torn between looking up at Tak's image and the scalpel wielding claw, which had now positioned itself right above his chest. It started drawing little lines down his red striped tunic, just heavy enough so that he could feel it yet light enough so that it didn't cut through anything more than the fabric. 

"Maybe I should torture you more first. What do you think Zim? I heard you don't like something called water. Or maybe dissection? Just a light one, you should still live for a while after it. I always wanted to see if you had a brain -" 

Zim's eyes widened. His worst nightmare… 

_'No no no no no no oh please no. It can't end like this!'_

"- and then maybe I'll do the water. We could see how exposed organs react to the substance. Either way, you and me, Zim, are going to have a lot of _fun._" 

Tak laughed horribly, satisfaction in her voice as the rest of Zim's tunic fell away, revealing a smooth, pale green chest. The house base claw shifted so that it moved down to the captive Irken's stomach. 

"Where should I start? Here?" 

A small gasp as the scalpel lightly swiped down his skin. Little beads of dark purple blood welled up from the shallow cut. 

"Or here?" 

Another cut. Another cry. 

"Or maybe here?" 

Zim twitched against the chair as the other cut was made. Blood, _his_ blood, started to drip slowly onto the floor. He struggled against the cable and moaned as the metal cut deep into his wrists. 

And then – 

"How accurate would I be if I… _cut you open in the dark?!_" 

"AGGGGGHHHHH!! NO! PLEASE!!" The scream erupted from Zim's parched throat. He struggled harder, ignoring the fact he was slowly slashing his wrists. He needed to escape! He needed to get out! He needed to - 

The lights went out. 

The scalpel went down. 

And somebody - 

_Somebody_ screamed. 

**//The End//**

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Ooohhh! If this had been a chapter fic I would probably be screaming "CLIFFHANGER!"  
But it's not, so I can't, and you will just have to contend with not knowing what happened to him. *Snickers evilly* 

Sooo…one last thing before we finish neh? PLEASE R/R! 

Thank you very muchly. =D 


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